The 2016 general election and the primaries leading up to it all feel like it was happening last week, but also, a whole lifetime ago. So much about the world has changed since then and many of the elections key players have faded into obscurity.
Ted Cruz was in the running to be the Republican candidate; he was up against some stiff competition for the role. Whilst we all know how it ended; Cruz was the closest to beating Donald Trump and being the Republican party’s candidate for President. Anyway, all of that was eight years ago now, but in 2024, history looks to be repeating itself as Trump is on track to be the Republican candidate yet again. As for Cruz, his name hasn’t been in the news as much since 2016, so what’s become of the Texan senator in recent years?
What happened to Ted Cruz?
Cruz dropped out of the race in May 2016. The primaries had been pretty intense and Trump had resorted to name-calling and insulting the politician’s family numerous times, but Cruz’ defeat at Indiana that was the final straw. As a result of their bitter debates, Cruz, understandably, did not endorse Trump at first, although he later did and at one point the then-president even considered him for the position of U.S. Attorney General, but the role went to someone else.
Right now, he still holds the position of junior senator for Texas a role which he has held since 2013. He has entertained the thought of running for the presidency again according to The Texas Tribune, although he opted for a third senate term rather than face Trump again. If Donald had not been in the running this year, it would have been interesting to see whether Cruz would have or not.
In 2021 he sparked an outcry as he jetted off for a holiday in Cancún during a deadly power outage which left millions of Texans freezing in their homes. Jetting off on a nice warm holiday whilst your constituents are freezing to death is probably not the smartest move a politician could make. According to 9 News there were calls for the senator’s resignation following the controversy, although evidently, he did not resign.
Outside of his main career, Cruz has pursued other endeavors including the writing of four books which were published between 2015 and 2023. In 2020 he also started a political podcast, Verdict with Ted Cruz, along with commentator Michael J. Knowles, although the co-host was later switched to Ben Ferguson. The podcast received a lot of attention thanks to the coverage of Trump’s indictment, something which saw Cruz being mocked by the likes of Stephen King. Despite backlash, the podcast is still going strong with corporate partners jumping on board and episodes coming out three times a week.
So to answer the question, Ted Cruz has managed to have a pretty comfortable career since his defeat in the primaries. He has no real competition for his senator position and he’s able to make some extra money on the side through his various other endeavors. He’s still very much involved in politics and it’s possible he’s just biding his time at the moment. As previously mentioned, he’s spoken about running for president again in the future and compared to other potential candidates he’s pretty young, so it’s possible we could see him try and make a comeback in the future.